NT Signs of Life in Darwin...

Can we use your interest as an leading indicator?

 

Prominent eatery & watering hole the ducks nuts closes its doors next month and many other cbd businesses are doing it tough, what positives other than OO activity are on the horizon for Darwin?

I spent 5 years in the NT during the boom. Feel fortunate that I did not buy at the time as many of my friends did.

 

You did well not to buy.

That business just got scammed out of 200k by a gambling addicted employee...doesn't exactly help. Plus it was well overpriced in a down econony.... Business is business.

But you're right...there doesn't seem like there's much on the horizon at the moment and the CBD is undoubtedly cactus....

Medium term things are happening though...New mines are quietly opening up the Ord is expanding, direct flights to China start soon, defence spending is increasing and Darwin's population continues to grow, albeit slowly.

No big uber-pojects just one hell of a boom hangover and a return to normal growth (and house prices...)

 

Interesting read & If Darwin’s on sale why so sad?
Darwin will be just fine & ill continue to put my eggs in this basket.
Certainty lots on the horizon for Darwin and the CBD.
It just depends on your investing strategy & where you get your info from.

When the “Big” sale comes (INPEX construction completes) I’ll be filling my boots.

4 Doors down from Ducks Nuts – the recent pub closure
Proposed China Development $115m 5* Hotel.

Will it go ahead?? Who knows, but let’s just say some people have their ear closer to the ground than others

 

From what i see and hear the market is low and the best time is to buy now.

I notice that in Darwin they are rapidly releasing land+house packages in Palmerston/Muirhead/Berrimah

 

You have to be real careful with these. Especially in this market.

Lots of my friends have lost a lot on these and prices haven't really come down much. Also a lot of the cheaper houses are designs lifted straight out of Melbourne.

You might be able to buy a cheaper house but the lower repayments will be more than made up by the increase in air con bills...

Not saying they are all bad....but you need to tread carefully.

 

I can see it dropping a bit more before it corrects. With inpex starting to finish up there will be a mass exodus.

There are some good things in the pipeline. The new gateway complex opened yesterday which will be great for Palmerston.

There are some half decent projects coming up too. Hopefully some of the rumours are true in future gas projects too

Great time to buy if your looking for a place to live in.

 

You are right i had forgotten to finish off what i was trying to imply whoops .

It just shows there is an OVERSUPPLY of these types of properties.

Also notice a lot of apartments being built in the "ghost city".

Went gateway yesterday wasnt much of a wow factor just looks more spacious than Casuarina. Although they still have stage 2 to release...

 

I think buying before Inpex winds up is high risk.
A local told me that it employs around 8,000 people (correct me if wrong)
So the finish of conatruction could affect up to 15,000 people in darwin (including workers familys)
If half of them leave town than that will surely affect prices in a negative way.
Also of lot of jobs up there are construction related and if the tide turns there will be mass job losses.
I like darwin and its definately a growing city and will continue to get bigger.
Just think its gotten too big too quickly

 

Ah. Yup. Best to look for properties where there is an undersupply....anything elevated in the 810 or 820 postcode will only get more valuable over time.

Townhouses with land and covered parking in Larrakeyah, Stuart Park and the gardens can also be good providing the body corp doesn't kill you...

Palmo can work too but you must get a bargain...take a look at Gunn...good area but cheap housing.

@Darwin55 is spot on about Inpex too. If you do buy anything now you need to negotiate hard so you don't lose when Inpex finishes up...

 

Can see palmerston being NT's second CBD.

The current cbd and northern suburbs dont have much more land to build/expand so best option the government have now is to expand to Palmerston.

Investment wise i'd still pay that extra to buy in Darwin compared to Brisbane.

Most work up here is in government, mining and construction which seem to be slowing down.

Altough there is still hope as there is the port which is leased to the chinese and potential investments for future developments by them.

 

Palmerston has always been inferior to Darwin (in favor of cheaper rents/houses) INPEX & project associated personnel took over the CBD and made it unaffordable.

Once INPEX finishes and the project people move out of Darwin, it will become more affordable for residents & tourists.

Darwin’s CBD and surrounding suburbs have Marinas, Waterfronts, Nightlife & large foreshores which is more desirable. Also the majority of service work is in the CBD.

Darwin property market has been dictated by major boom and bust projects cycles but once completed the service & tourism industry will take hold.
This is where you will see massive growth IMO.

I believe Darwin will be a (smaller) version of Singapore within 20 years.

If Fracking goes ahead - all bets are off and we will see another boom and bust project cycle, the same as ConocoPhillips and INPEX has given Darwin.

 

You know, I'm no longer sure this will be the case? Like, it very well could happen, but I do genuinely wonder if we've started to cross the threshold where things are too cheap in anticipation for this event...much the same way that things got too expensive before a single sod was turned?

I would expect the overpriced properties to come down (duh!) but they will have had to do that anyways. We'll see. The cheap stuff sells and I think it will continue to do so without dropping too much more in price.

P.S If i'm wrong it just means I get to go shopping...

 

Fantastic time to buy if you are living here and for us decent investment also.

We are living in Darwin temporarily for a couple of years.
At the end of 2016 we bought a great elevated tropical house with a granny flat in the low $500k- it was advertised at 700k a year earlier. It got listed again last minute with desperate interstate sellers who had to sell by a deadline so we scored a bargain!

It has 1000m2 land, massive pool, big tropical garden and entertaining deck and the real clincher for us is that there is a fully self contained granny flat and two massive work sheds. It's in one of the more demanded northern suburbs right near the markets, foreshore and good schools.
It's where a lot of the Darwin Hospital doctors live and the last few years it has easily been rented to hospital people.
We are renting out our granny flat for $270 a week so it's costing us hardly anything. Previously we were paying $750 per week in rent in Sydney and $650 per week in Darwin!

To top it all off as we are first home buyers, we got stamp duty exemption, 10K in reno allowance for first home buyers and another 4K in home improvement scheme, so a total of $40k in government grants!

This will be an investment in another couple of years time as we move interstate so with the dual income source it will be positively geared.

 

Realistically once Inpex winds up and the current construction boom does as well, wages and contractor rates city wide will drop - this affects cafes, pubs etc as well

Townsville is the perfect case study. 12 years ago it was Darwin . In fact its much bigger than Darwin
Look what happened since, unfortunately Darwin will go through the same imo.

Look how cheap property is in Townsville. Bigger population, bigger blocks, better quality builds - (both old and new) and its probably half the price
Only difference is Darwin is at 12:30 / 1 tville at 6:30/7

 

Maybe? You might still be right but TSV does have the unemployment chestnut. Even if Darwin's unemployment doubled post Inpex we'd still be round 6-7 percent.

Wages will always be (much) higher here too and its a Capital.

But hey, this is all crystal ball gazing. Who knows? You might well be right? Guess we'll find out soon enough!

 

More news...I think this is good?

The government today dropped the dual occupancy legislation. Basically you can't subdivide 1000m2 blocks anymore (without going through the whole DA rigmarole).

There will be a few ****** landowners...but then again I suspect this stopps a whole lot of new supply hitting a dead market.

Could be a good opportunity to snap up a 1000m2 block before the rules do inevitably change? Thoughts?

@Cards, @aussieB, @Darwin55

 

I think even the sellers know the rules will change inevitably. Unless there is a distress sale, I would be wary. But the whole of Darwin is distressing atm, so.

 

This was established by the CLP and was in place for 1 day only - Labour got in & scrapped it.
1 Application was approved under the change.

I don't think this will be changed any time soon but >1000sqm will be the key land size number if it does.

 

Just read this article and it says "What’s driven this resurgence for certain parts of the dwelling market is the reintroduction of the First Home Owner Grant for existing property." Is the FHOG for existing property really reinstated? I checked treasury.nt.gov.au and it looks like it isn't reinstated but it'd be huge for me if it has been.